💸 It’s Not Too Late to Do Your Taxes — Neurodivergent Bookkeeping with Aneisha Velazquez

Speaker 0Let's go off the grid. Okay. Let's go off the grid. Okay. I know that you really wanna put your phone away.

Speaker 0Yeah.

Amelia HrubyHello and welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast about running a creative small business with no or minimal social media. I'm your host, Amelia Froomey. And on this show, I share stories, strategies, and experiments for sharing your work and making money online without big tech surveilling your every move. In today's episode, we are embracing tax season. Yes.

Amelia HrubyYou heard me correctly. It is tax season in The US. And instead of fighting it, we are embracing it here on the show. And I am sharing two episodes this week, talking to professionals who are here to help us feel better about our books, make sense of our money, and, dare I say, empower ourselves to earn in alignment with our values. I'm so excited to bring you this mini series.

Amelia HrubyAnd before I tell you about today's guest, I just wanna make sure that you know about two things we have going on here at the podcast. The first is that this show is paired with a free leaving social media toolkit. This resource includes the three tools that helped me leave social media, including a five step plan for leaving any social platform, my list of 100 ways to share your work and life without social media, and a creative marketing ideas database, where you can take the things on that list and turn them into a plan for your marketing in the season ahead. The toolkit has been downloaded almost 5,000 times and it got a really lovely refresh for 2026. So whether you are a new listener or a long time listener, I hope you will head to the show notes or go to offthegrid.fun/toolkit to get your free resources today.

Amelia HrubyThe second announcement I have for you is that this month, I am hosting an off the grid twenty twenty six astrology and business planning summit. I've never hosted a summit before, but we have so many amazing astrologers, artists, and strategists inside the interweb that I wanted to get some of them together and showcase their work and share it with all of you wonderful off the grid listeners. So we are doing that on the seventeenth and twenty fourth of this month. On the seventeenth, we will have four live workshops on astrology, creativity, and business from many different angles taught by interweb members, Maz George, Miana Melendez, Ray Sarafina Barker, and Rachel Amber of cyclical roots. And then on the twenty fourth, we will have a panel on intuitive integrity, how to use intuitive tools without outsourcing your judgment or betraying your values.

Amelia HrubyI'm gonna be facilitating that panel with Verena Burrell, Sarah Aronza Amador, and Natasha Levinger. And then in the afternoon on the twenty fourth, I will be leading a spring biz planning workshop featuring some amazing tools from our sponsor, nine to kind planners. And if I haven't said this yet, the best news about this whole summit is that it's entirely free. Yes. You heard that right.

Amelia HrubyYou can come to the four astrology, creativity, and business workshops, as well as the panel, as well as the spring biz planning session with me, all for free, thanks to our sponsor, nine to kind. All you have to do is go to the link in the show notes and RSVP. The recordings will be available for at least a week between and after the events and when you get on the list you also get a bunch of free resources from our guest speakers and teachers as well as a free digital daily planner download from nine to kind and some discount codes for their other products. So it's gonna be an amazing time. I'm super excited to host this for our community.

Amelia HrubyAll you have to do to join us or get the recordings is RSVP at the link in the show notes. So head there, do that, grab the Leaving Social Media Toolkit, and while you get that done, I'm gonna tell you about today's guest. Anisha Velasquez helps neurodivergent online service providers who feel good at business but tense about money. She's the founder of Yellow Sky Business Services and writes the Peaceful Pocket, where she shares about neurodivergent friendly business, money with context, and life as an ADHD founder. Today, she is here to talk to us about bookkeeping, especially for neurodivergent business owners or anyone who feels anxious or avoidant about their cash flow.

Amelia HrubyIn this conversation, we get into what bookkeeping really is and what it's not, the financial systems that we think all solopreneurs probably need to have in place, tips for neurodivergent business owners who are struggling with their bookkeeping, why we love Profit First and my favorite business bank account, as well as a pep talk for tax season and not being afraid of the IRS. As the title of this episode says, it is not too late to do your taxes, dear listeners in The US. And if you want some accompaniment or encouragement to get started, this is the episode for you. So let's go ahead and dive in, shall we, to my conversation with Anisha Velasquez. Hi, Anisha.

Amelia HrubyWelcome to Off the Grid.

Aneisha VelazquezThank you so much for having me.

Amelia HrubyWe met pretty much a year ago in a sort of, like, networking gathering with friend of the pod, our mutual acquaintance, Jana, of the CoPro Club, which was so fun. And I have had your name in my inbox since then, and I keep thinking, gotta do that bookkeeping episode. Gotta do that bookkeeping episode. And then this year, I was doing my own taxes, and I was like, wow. I really should have done that bookkeeping episode.

Amelia HrubySo here we are doing it for the people. I'm so thrilled to be in conversation with you. Listeners of the show will know that I often start with, like, very basic questions, like, defining terms. I think it's my philosophy background coming through. But I was hoping we could start today with a pretty basic question for you that I think will be elucidating for listeners, which is when we talk about bookkeeping, what are we even talking about?

Amelia HrubyLike, what are the core elements of business or business finance that make up our books?

Aneisha VelazquezSo short answer bookkeeping is all the steps that get you ready to file taxes or get you ready to look at like your profit and loss statement. And so sometimes, like if you have an accountant, they might do bookkeeping for you just like a quick catch up your book so they can file your taxes. Or if you could have separate people like a bookkeeper, who's doing that day to day, making sure your invoices are recorded and paid, organizing the receipts and then handing it off to a separate like tax person. But that's kinda how I like to think of it. Like bookkeeping is just organizing the records, tracking that money in and out, and just getting everything ready for that next step of tax filing.

Amelia HrubyI think that's really helpful to, like, sort of root into the distinction between a bookkeeper and an accountant and how blurry it can be. Because like you just said, like, my accountant technically does a tiny bit of bookkeeping for me, which is that he requires that I reconcile my QuickBooks before I send in my tax information, and then he has access to it. So he'll just, like, go through and do a quick check to make sure everything looks good and he can sign off on it when he files my taxes. But that's very different than what I imagine you're likely doing day to day or month to month with folks as a bookkeeper. So could you say a little bit more about that process?

Amelia HrubyLike, what is it that you do with and for your clients?

Aneisha VelazquezSo my job, I like to think of it as a lot of my clients are using tools like Stripe, Square, like online payment processing that makes it easy to get paid, but it actually makes your the bookkeeping side of things a little trickier because you're trying to gather all that information and get it into your books so that you have how much money came in and then then how much is going out. I'm consolidating all that information into that one place, which for most people is QuickBooks, or whatever bookkeeping software you're using. Even the spreadsheet, you can think of it that way. Like you're putting it all in one place and then it's easier for you to go back into the year or month to month and see like how much did it came in, how much is going out and then where is it going? And then what I do with my accounting knowledge is I make sure like how we're labeling that money in and out is also what your tax person needs so they get the information they need from your reports.

Aneisha VelazquezThis is kinda what I like to talk about myself as, like, an interpreter or translator of your money in a way because I'm taking what you need to know from your bookkeeping, from your numbers, but also making sure it is interpreted to a form that is needed to file taxes. And this is something that I learned too in my accounting courses. There's actually different kinds of, accounting. So there's, like, financial accounting, which is the reports, making sure your reports are telling the full story about your business, then there's tax accounting. So getting the information needed to tell the IRS what's going on with your business, because they need to know different things.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd then there is managerial accounting, which is what you as the business owner or the people running the business need to know. And that's usually it's different information, and it's usually more, like, just for your eyes. You don't really want outside people to know that. So it's it's like all these different pieces of information coming from one set of numbers. So you're really like translating between all of those using my knowledge to help make sure that throughout the year, they're ready for their tax person and also taking care of the business or knowing what they need to know.

Aneisha VelazquezSo it it's like that more of a partner with the money side of things.

Amelia HrubyI really like this sort of way of describing bookkeeping as being someone's, like, money partner and interpreter. And I also really appreciated how you brought in, like, the different types of accounting and what's happening, because I was thinking as well that, like, one reason to do your books is, like, we all have to get ready for taxes. Right? Like, this episode is coming out just before taxes are due in The US, and, like, that is a big part of bookkeeping. But, also, we need to do our books so that we know what is happening financially in our businesses.

Amelia HrubyRight? If we don't do our books, if we're not paying attention to our cash flow, we can't make strategic decisions for our business growth or degrowth. Right? Like, maybe you're like, oh, actually, my cash flow is great. I could take on three fewer clients next month, or I need to take on 10 more clients next month.

Amelia HrubyLike, we need information about our finances to be able to make those decisions. And I find that, like, of course, so much, like, money programming comes up in this. But without the basic information about how money is moving through your business, you'll just always be in the dark about what choices are available to you.

Aneisha VelazquezWithout that good, solid, clear foundation, anything you do on top of that or based off of that information is just not as reliable because your input will be the same as your output. So if the input's messy, the output's gonna be kinda messy. So if it's not trustworthy going in, then the decisions you make on top of that are just shakier.

Amelia HrubyYeah. So maybe on that note of, like, messy inputs or outputs, I know that you specialize in working with neurodivergent folks. And a lot of the neurodivergent business owners I know feel like money is really, like, mysterious and messy to them. They struggle perhaps to, you know, collect receipts or keep things in one place. And so I'm curious, with your specialization and working with neurodivergent led micro businesses, how do you support folks who don't think in the most linear way or maybe approaching accounting feels pretty unnatural to them.

Amelia HrubyAre there systems that you put in place or practices that you recommend for neurodivergent business owners to help make bookkeeping easier?

Aneisha VelazquezYes. Yeah. Well and I'm neurodivergent myself, so I got diagnosed a few years ago as autistic and also ADHD. So how I look at bookkeeping is more of like a system, like a money system, because the system is one of those topics that I just really get into. And I came across a really great definition of a system, which is that it like a system is made up of elements that are all related to each other, or they have a relationship with the goal of fulfilling some purpose.

Aneisha VelazquezSo, like, for your money system, it's usually making money and then keeping it or keeping as much of it as you can. And so what I like to do is see what people are already doing for their bookkeeping. Even with clients who come to me for me to do their books, I like to take a look at, like, what are you already doing, what's working, and then what can we make easier. Because for me, like, friction is a big issue when I'm like, just in my own business or personal life, getting things done, I try to minimize friction because if there's less friction, it's easier to do it and it's easier to keep doing it. Because I I think this is a common neurodivergent experience where you're doing something and it's working really well, and then for some reason it just stops working.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd I, like, hate when that happens. So I feel like part of that reason is the friction. So if I can remove the friction for something, then it can keep running in the background. Even if I get bored of it or don't want to do it anymore. If it's working, especially with something related to money, if I can just make it so easy, it's almost dumb not to do it, then that's kind of like my goal.

Aneisha VelazquezSo even with my clients' books, even though I'm doing a lot of, like, recording QuickBooks, I still work on their system to make it easier over time and less friction over time. And that's something I've discovered working with my neurodivergent clients too. It's like I try to get a lot of work done upfront doing my onboarding process because I found that that initial, like, yes, I got a bookkeeper. Let's get this done. And then, like, a month or two later, you know, there's either less interest or they get busy or it's just harder to reach them, which I get.

Aneisha VelazquezI'm like, we're we're all busy. We've got things going on. So I try to do a lot of work up front and remove friction. So that later on when we're working together, it's just a smoother experience, like over time versus like easy up front and then harder later. Like, I feel like that's too much, too much friction.

Aneisha VelazquezSo I'm like, I'm all about system. Even people who DIY their books, if they come to talk to me, I like to ask, like, what are you already doing? What's working? And then see, like, the relationship between some of the elements in that system. Like, maybe you could just rearrange it and that will remove some friction.

Aneisha VelazquezLike like, if you like paper receipt, that's fine. Just have, like, a envelope with the year written on it or a folder with the year on it or like, I, like, I can, like, brainstorm with you, like, give ideas and then you see which one, like, lands for you. Like, okay. Yeah. I could do that.

Aneisha VelazquezThat's like just a small tweak to what I'm already doing to make it easier. So I I like to work like that. Like, let's tweak it, tweak it, and then we can make bigger changes over time instead of one big change at once, and then you're not gonna keep up with it. And then it's almost like we're worse off than when we started. It's like, I don't I don't like doing that to people.

Amelia HrubyYeah. I really appreciate this. I think what I'm taking away and would agree with is, like, I actually think it's quite important to set up financial systems when you start your business. I encounter a lot of people who, like, get to their first tax season, and that's the first time they think about their expense tracking, etcetera. And if they've already been in business for six months or nine months at that point, it's actually hard to, like, reverse engineer it.

Amelia HrubySo when I find, like, brand new business owners, I think getting those financial systems in place at the beginning, as you said, like, whether you're working with the bookkeeper or not, just that upfront investment of time and setup, I think, is actually just really supportive. And then I love what you said about making changes in an iterative way. So instead of, like, you know, I have to overhaul my financial bookkeeping system every year, like, what if we just make one tweak? What if we just add a second envelope for receipts? What if we just color code this thing a different way?

Amelia HrubyWhat if we just get this extra column in the spreadsheet instead of, like, you know, a totally new software every nine months or something? I think that those are both really important ways of approaching bookkeeping and business finances. I'm curious if there are some examples. Like, I appreciate what you're saying about reducing the friction, but I'm wondering if there are, like, specific tactics that you recommend or perhaps systems or rituals that you wish or recommend that, like, every small business owner put in place ASAP.

Aneisha VelazquezYes. So I like to think of your, like, your money system or your bookkeeping as fulfilling two parts. So the part most people know is, like, tracking the past. And so that would be having your receipts organized. So if you can get on a monthly rhythms are good for bookkeeping, but if you can't do monthly, at least quarterly tracking down those receipts and saving them, whether it's physical envelopes or in a, like a cloud storage folder, I prefer that just because if the receipt fades, you still have a copy of it, but just on that regular rhythm throughout the year, saving those receipts, also anything related to your business registration, EIN letter, IRS letters, anything related to the business and money, just save it.

Aneisha VelazquezEven if you're not sure about it, just save it in that folder as well. And then part of tracking the past of your business, like what's happened, is the records and then the money in and out. So your QuickBooks or your spreadsheet, again, on a regular basis, monthly or quarterly, just sitting down, taking a look how much came in, how much came out, and then what was left over. And, like, just just so you know, you have an idea of the pulse of your business. After you've got those, then it's almost like the next part, which to me, this is where it helps you not only know what's going on in your business, but see, like, where do you want it to go?

Aneisha VelazquezSo, like, just reviewing your patterns, like, where how much are you spending on certain things? Is that what you expected? Is it not what you expected? And if not, why your revenue? Is there, like, slow periods, busy periods, or is it pretty consistent?

Aneisha VelazquezIf anything changes, what happened? Why? Like, just just knowing those things. And then eventually, you can start doing what's called, you know, KPIs, metrics, but that's that's basically a simple version of metrics. Like, you're just deciding, when do I pay attending attention to, and then what's my goal with this?

Aneisha VelazquezDo I want it to go up? Do I want it to go down? How much? So if you can do that on quarterly, start quarterly, and then eventually you'll find, like, oh, I want to know this sooner. So then you'll move to monthly, and then sometime you might even want weekly, daily.

Aneisha VelazquezIt but just start, and then you can do it more often later. It's like, I like to start small and then once it gets easier, you can add in more, do it more frequently, add in more things you're looking at. That way you build up the capacity to do it, and then, you know, how you like to see the information. Do you like to see numbers? Do you want to see it in charts?

Aneisha VelazquezDo you want like colors on it that helps you build up that capacity? And then you can just take charge of your business. Like this is how we want to see things. Even if you outsource it to someone else, you can tell them like, hey. I prefer to see my numbers on a nice little dashboard with charts and pie charts and things.

Aneisha VelazquezI don't really want, like, spreadsheets. Like, you can give that information.

Amelia HrubyOh, this is so interesting to hear you say, because I have a somewhat opposite experience of what you're describing. Like, when I started my business, I looked at the money all the time. Like, I looked at my incoming and outgoing almost every day, and then it was every Friday, and then it was once a month, and now it's once a quarter. And for me, some of this comes into, like, I do think it maps on to some, like, attachment style stuff. Like, if you have a rather avoidant style with money and you don't like to look at it, and you're like, it's over there, not for me, then I would kind of, quote, unquote, prescribe exactly what you're saying.

Amelia HrubyRight? Like, okay. We'll do it once a quarter. Now we'll do it once a month. Like, we'll build up a capacity and a tolerance for being with the money more often.

Amelia HrubyI think for me, I had a very anxious relationship to money. And so when I started my business, I was so rooted in fear of, like, am I gonna have enough? Is it there? Is any money coming in? What's happening?

Amelia HrubyAnd so I checked it all the time, and I actually had to go through this process of, like, okay. Can I be at ease with this? Can I, like, look at it a little bit less? I also got some advice pretty early in my business that I found helpful that, like, I noticed I would start panicking at the end of any month where I didn't do well. And someone suggested to me that maybe that wasn't enough of a time span to really get a good sense of what's really happening.

Amelia HrubyAnd so they were like, I think you can track monthly, but I wouldn't make any sort of projections or decisions except on a quarter by quarter basis, like having that different time span. And so I completely agree with what you're saying. And I also think it depends so much on what is our orientation toward money, because that will show up in our bookkeeping every single time.

Aneisha VelazquezYeah. And then it depends, like, I again, because I think in systems, I have that for the past. For me, like, monthly is enough. But, like, for planning ahead, looking ahead, I need, like, a bigger, like, twelve months looking ahead. What am I expecting to come in and go out?

Aneisha VelazquezAnd and then for certain metrics, which really aren't directly money, but, like, how many subscribers am I getting to my email list? How many discovery calls am I having? Like, tracking that monthly to weekly. And then as for the actual, like, money in the business, I like Profit First for that. That way I don't have to be in my QuickBooks all the time, just be in the bank account and just see, like, I have different buckets set aside for, like, taxes or savings.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd that way I can just see what's in there. And that's that's kind of how I can keep track during the month. So like daily if I want to or yeah. But again, it I set it up based on, like, what do I need to see to feel that I have a sense of what's going on? Like, just personally, I'm like, I don't wanna be at QuickBooks, like, every day.

Aneisha VelazquezPlus QuickBooks, this the bank sync has a delay. Like, you know, it hits the bank and then it takes a bit for it to show up in QuickBooks anyway. But those are like little things that when I talk to people, we can decide, like, okay, it would be the best to to set it up like this then. It's very individual, like you said.

Amelia HrubyYou mentioned Profit First, which is a system that I often recommend, especially for newer business owners. I think my first three years in business, I did a very strict Profit First system, and then I registered it as an s corp, and it didn't quite work anymore. But regardless, I'm wondering, could you just give, like, a high level overview of what Profit First is in case listeners don't know and maybe why you use it or recommend it for some people?

Aneisha VelazquezSo profit first, if you read the book, the author intentionally says this is for people who are not accountants. Don't have accountant brains. I think the author has, he is neurodivergent. I can't recall right now, but so he made it as a way for business owners who are already looking at their bank accounts anyway to know how much money they actually have available for spending. And it's called Profit First because he wants there to be no more broke entrepreneurs.

Aneisha VelazquezHe's like, you guys need to take out money from your business as profit, as a reward for taking the risk to start a business. And so in in the method, he goes into it, but you're basically putting money into different buckets. So you're all the money coming in, you set aside part of it to pay yourself, part of it for taxes, part of it for actual business expenses, and then a a little part for profit that you can pay out later to yourself, like your own shareholder, basically. I used it too for my business, like, when I first started because I read the book in that same year, and it's very helpful. I wouldn't say I'm strict with it.

Aneisha VelazquezI have the buckets. I have the percentages that I set aside, but sometimes I do have to adjust it. But I like it because it's a very visual way to see, like, how much is in each bucket. And if I do need to make adjustments, it's just really easy.

Amelia HrubyI think I really enjoyed it for many reasons. And I'll just say for listeners, like, I will link the profit first book in the show notes. I will also link one of my favorite business, small business banks, Novo, which allows you to create these different buckets inside your bank account. Because in the initial or original Profit First system, like, I know people who had, like, five banks because they were, like, moving their money to different places, but now there are all of these, like, fintech solutions that automate this for you. So for me, even now, I'm not so much doing profit first, but I have an automated setup in my bank that just puts 15% of every single Stripe drop into my account goes into a tax reserve.

Amelia HrubyAnd, like, that's just where it goes. So I'll link some resources for that in the show notes, listeners. But I really appreciate everything that you're saying, Anisha, because I do think that, especially when you're just starting out, just having I mean, ideally, you do have a separate bank account for all of your business work. Like, I don't know any bookkeeper or accountant who will work with business owners that do not have separate accounts for business and personal. So dear listener, if you are still combining all of your stuff in one account, please begin this process by separating accounts.

Amelia HrubySet up a business bank account. I will link my favorite below, but pick one of your choosing. Just a different bank account exclusively for your business. I have a business bank account and I have a business credit card and they only do business stuff. And then once you get that set up, in the beginning it can just feel like, well, there's money in that account, what do I do with it?

Amelia HrubyAnd, like, I know a lot of business owners who really struggled to they would either never pay themselves out of that account because what if there's an expense? What if I need it? Or who paid themselves all the money out of that account, and then they were like, ugh, there's nothing here for tax time. There's nothing here for this. And so what I loved about Profit First is it was just this, like, I could set it up in an automated way to be, like, here's what you get paid.

Amelia HrubyHere's this for this and everything else. And then like you said, some months I was like, well, I have to buy a new computer because my MacBook Air cannot do eight hours of audio editing a day. And so I had to pull some money from my profit account and my owner's comp account to cover that expense. Right? Because a MacBook Pro costs a lot of money.

Amelia HrubyBut I think that just having the different buckets made it easier to see, like, money is reserved for different things. It's not just this, like, one random amount in the account that I have to figure out what to do with. And I'm I'm really grateful. Like, what a great system. Right?

Amelia HrubyAnd I love the name of it too. Like, profit first, owner gets paid first. Like, I do think that, as you said, like, the goal of the system is to sort of enact our values, put in place what we want to be the case with ease. And just the name profit first is about, like, making sure there's profit in the business with ease, which I find is such a good mindset shift and reframe for small business owners.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd going back to what you said about starting the business bank account, because I've had people come to me who they want their books, like, caught up and set up the right way now. They've they've been in business for a couple years, and they couldn't get a business account at first, but they had, like, maybe a personal credit card they use only for the business or a personal checking they open just for the business. That works too because from my end, it just it makes it easier for me to see, like, these were all business expenses. I can categorize them easily. I miss all the incomes in there.

Aneisha VelazquezIt keeps it neat and clean. So, like, my two tips for people who are new, if they're not sure what to do starting off for bookkeeping, is first save everything related to the business, receipts, documents, IRS letters, tax letters, anything, and then have those separate account, whether you can open a business account yet or if you can't, at least a separate personal one, and then switch over when you can. Because those those things two things help so much, and it makes things so much easier when you do hire someone or have an accountant helping.

Amelia HrubyYeah. Absolutely. And I will also say for folks who are, you know, kind of fearful of tax time or stressed about being audited, the IRS really wants you to have separate accounts. They do not like when things are merged, and you just get to say, like, well, this coffee shop trip was business, but this one wasn't. Like, the auditors are not fans.

Amelia HrubySo

Aneisha VelazquezConsistency is a lot easier to show proof of. But if it's, like, different things every time, it's just so much harder to prove that it was the space's expense.

Amelia HrubyHello, my lovely listener. Amelia here, interrupting this amazing conversation. Because if you're enjoying this episode, the one you're listening to right now, I think you would really love the Off the Grid Clubhouse. The Clubhouse is a paid podcast newsletter and asynchronous community space for friends and fans of Off the Grid hosted on Substack. It's where I share my monthly biz forecasts, bonus episodes about my hot takes, personal feelings, deepest, darkest, brightest, lightest ideas about online business, and more.

Amelia HrubyI also send out a monthly link roundup called the click through where I gather everything that I have been reading, watching, and intrigued by with regards to internet culture, social media happenings, and online business at large. That's also where I have been chronicling the many, many, many announcements I see lately of people taking breaks from social media or exiting platforms entirely. And all of the posts in the clubhouse have community comment threads where you can ask me questions, share your experiences, and chat with other off the grid listeners. It only costs $5 per month or $50 per year to join the fun, and I truly hope that you will head to the show notes and check it out. I look forward to seeing you on Substack.

Amelia HrubyBut for now, let's dive back into this conversation. I'm so grateful for, like, how you've rooted us in systems in this conversation and reminded us that, like, bookkeeping is in and of itself just a financial system. And for folks listening who are neurodivergent or think nonlinearly or whatever it may be, like, you can build your own systems around this. Like, it can be super personalized to you. I'm curious, Anisha.

Amelia HrubyLike, I can share some examples from my own systems, but, like, are there any sort of, like, fun or funny things that you do in your own bookkeeping where you're like, here's a thing that is, like, really personalized to me and may not work for anybody else, but it's totally how I make sense of this.

Aneisha VelazquezThe first thing that come to mind I'm like, I don't know if I would call it funny though, because, like, accounting, like, those two things typically don't go together.

Amelia HrubyBut,

Aneisha Velazquezwell, the one I thought of is, like, specifically for receipts because I have the flavor of neurodivergent that works better in cycles. And if I have to do the same thing every day, it feels like like how some people feel about going to the dentist. So I build my systems to let me, like, if I need to take a pause, I can, and I can come back to it. So that's that's my flavor of systems, like flexible structure. Like, I might work on this every day, and then I might take a week or two weeks, but I can come back to it and everything's still running.

Aneisha VelazquezSo for my receipts, my current iteration, because a lot of them get emailed to my email account, but I like to store them in a Google Drive folder just for easy search. And so what I do is I have a email automation that just labels all the receipts in a specific folder, like, to action receipts. And then it could be daily when I'm in there or it could be once a week or once a month. But I'll go in there. I'll make sure I don't like, all of them are downloaded.

Aneisha VelazquezI'm sure there's a way to set up an automation, but I kind of like to look through them just in case there's something like, oh, that should have been canceled. So and then once I get them downloaded to the drive folder, like, I name them a certain way so I can search by, like, amount or vendor. Then I move them to a different folder that's, like, actioned receipts just in case I need to go back in there and find them again. So, like, for me, it works that way. If I stop and come back, I can see like, oh, I still haven't moved process these receipts yet.

Aneisha VelazquezIt's like a manual, half manual, half automatic kind of process. And that's that's that's something that I I like to do again just to keep the handle on it because my actual books in QuickBooks, my well, my husband, because he works with me, he processes those in QuickBooks for me, like, weekly. So I don't really touch those transactions as much as I used to. But just looking at the expenses, I can get an idea of, like, yes. This should be an expense.

Aneisha VelazquezThis yes. This is something I bought, or, oh, no. That subscription. I need to cancel because I don't wanna use it anymore.

Amelia HrubyYeah. Maybe the word I was looking for earlier is just, like, idiosyncratic. Maybe it's not, like, quote, unquote funny, but it's like there are all these ways that as business owners who have to track our finances, like, we we build these little tiny systems and processes that I think are so specific to us. And it's so interesting. Like, once again, I feel like I'm the inverse of what you just described.

Amelia HrubyLike, my receipts, I just, like, dump them in an email folder and I never look at them again until I go into QuickBooks. And I'm like, categorize. Post, post, post, post, post. Like, that's all I do. But I have a very idiosyncratic process for tracking my revenue that's incoming.

Amelia HrubySo I have, like, Stripe notifications turned on across all of my different Stripe notifications and accounts. So I get an email every time money hits my Stripe account, and then I have an email automation set up to move it into a to process folder under my incoming money or, like, under my receipts folder. And they just dump in there, and then every so often, like you said, like, when I have the time or when I think about it, sometimes it's at the end of the workday. Sometimes it's at the end of the month. Like, I will go into that folder, and then I manually track how much money has come into the business.

Amelia HrubySo I categorize everything. I'm like, oh, all of these $5 Stripe payments, those are all my Substack payments. Oh, this was like an editing client, and so I really closely track how much money I'm making from every different revenue stream in my business. And then once I've tracked it, I, like, move it into the just larger receipts folder. But I share all of that because I appreciate that you shared.

Amelia HrubyAnd, like, I think that it's interesting and important to get to. Right? Like, for each of us, we have these different orientations to what is most important for us to have top of mind in our business. And I would say, like, it's not more right or wrong that you perhaps track expenses more closely and I perhaps track revenue more closely. Those are just the processes we've developed to help us make sense of the business and the business finances.

Amelia HrubyAnd to me, that's what's most important for neurodivergent business owners is, like, what information do you need to make sense of your business finances, and how do you make sure that specific information is able to stay top of mind and visible to you? And it may not be the same information somebody else needs, but, like, what is your version of that? And then what is your, like, idiosyncratic email automation manual tracking process by which you get that information?

Aneisha VelazquezAnd it can change over time because the new thing I've added in my process is I at the end of the month, when I made my reports, checked my dashboards, I like to make a Loom video where I walk myself through it, kinda like what I would do for a client, but for myself. And I just walk through, like, here's what the you know, my p and l on revenue, and then my, like, I'm tracking different things that lead to revenue. And so I just walk through it and my thoughts. And sometimes on the video, I'll think, you know what? Maybe next month, let's, like, look at this other number instead, see if this gives me more information.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd that just it's almost like an appointment with myself where I have to walk through it and look at it and think about it. And then I go step further now, and I have the AI prompt where I'll just take the transcript, put that in there, and tell it to bullet point summary of what I've said and then what I said I wanted to focus on next month. So it's just like my own little I guess, my own little consult call with myself. Yeah. Yeah.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd that's, like, a new thing, and I really like it. So yeah.

Amelia HrubyYeah. I would definitely describe that as fun to me. As a, like, money nerd, That 100% feels fun. And it really just has me thinking, like, if you do something like that over time, like, how cool it would be if I could go back and, like, hear my firsthand impressions about my money in year one of my business, which, like, I can access the data of that these days. I can pull a p and l for 2021 in QuickBooks or whatever.

Amelia HrubyBut, like, if I could actually hear myself talking about it out loud, I'm sure that my money stories have evolved and changed so much. And also maybe some of them haven't. Maybe I could be like, wow. I still feel that way. Even though, you know, my revenue has quadrupled or my profit is here instead of there, like, you know, I think you could really surface both the dollars and cents of how things change over time, but also those bigger narratives that always, again, just, like, come up and get embedded in the systems that we build around our money and our bookkeeping.

Amelia HrubySo I love that process, and I'm really thinking too, like, so cool that you do it as a loom for yourself. I also think for some other, like, neurodivergent brains, like, having an accountability buddy where you do it together could really make all the difference around just, like, you know, thirty minutes with one other person a month where you each take fifteen to walk through it, no judgment, and that, like, keeps you showing up and reflecting back and, like, building forward. That feels really nourishing and supportive.

Aneisha VelazquezI probably say this a lot, but make it a system that fits you, that makes sense to you. Yes. There are rules for money. So I, I literally went and got an accounting degree so I can know the rules, almost like learn the rules so you can break them like an artist. So, yeah, it's like, yes, there's things you do need to have in your system, which is why you can talk to your accountant or a bookkeeper and ask them, like, is this good?

Aneisha VelazquezLike, can I keep doing this this way? And then they'll let you know. But, yeah, it's like, it's flexible and you can make it fit how you work.

Amelia HrubyYes. Absolutely. As business owners, we do have to keep our receipts. We do have to track the money coming in and going out. Like, those are nonnegotiables if you want to be just, like, solvent with the IRS and the US government, such that you can keep being in business according to the rules of the society we live in.

Amelia HrubyCompletely agreed. But whether you do your books with, like, the fanciest coffee in hand, or you do your books in bed under the covers, like, that's totally up to you. Right? Like, there are a lot of details around these systems that we can build to work for us, even though, yes, of course, like, the reason we're doing this is is not just because we all feel like we want to. It's because there are rules and regulations around it.

Amelia HrubyAlways appreciate that reminder. I'm curious as a bookkeeper yourself, like, when do you think it's time for someone to hire a bookkeeper? Like, if someone listening to this is considering, like, do I need a bookkeeper? I'm not sure. What are some things that you would say to them to look for and be like, yeah, if you're experiencing this, maybe you wanna hire a bookkeeper.

Aneisha VelazquezBiggest one is if it's this time of year and you still don't have your numbers together, and this keeps happening every year, like every year it's a big project to pull, like, income together, expenses together to get your numbers to your accountant, then it's probably time to start looking for a bookkeeper. If if you don't wanna keep doing that, I think and then another thing to think about is if during the year, like, you're thinking, like, I wish someone could just hold my hand through this. Like, your accountant, you see once a year, but, like, in between that, like, I wish someone would just hold my hand, like, kind of had someone ask questions about in QuickBooks, like, I'm having issues. I don't really understand what to do with this categorizing or reconciling. Like, what does that even mean?

Aneisha VelazquezAm I doing it right? Then it's time to either think about hiring your bookkeeper. And bookkeeper is, like, you can get one monthly, or you can also just do, like, a consult call with one. If you just have questions, you want them to check what you're doing, you could get quarterly repeat check ins, or they'll just, on a regular basis, check-in with you, sit down, answer your questions you have. Or if you're you've been in business a couple of years, you've kind of been tracking things in a spreadsheet, your your business is making money, and you're thinking like, okay, maybe I should start setting up my bookkeeping seriously, but what does that look like?

Aneisha VelazquezThen again, I'm gonna contact call with bookkeeper who does, like, a setup that helps set up your books in QuickBooks, if that's where you wanna use or another software Set up your chart of accounts. That'll make it easy to categorize things and have your reports ready for tax filing. But, yeah, I I would say the biggest thing when people talk to me is just that, like, that feeling of, I want someone there with me to make sure I'm doing it right.

Amelia HrubyYeah. Absolutely. I think just that second check or double checking. And, also, I personally think a really good time to bring on a bookkeeper is if you're making any sort of, like, business change or pivot. Like, if you're changing structures, if you're gonna, you know, launch a product slide and suddenly you have cogs and you have all this other stuff you've never dealt with before, if you're changing the legal structure of your business.

Amelia HrubyYou know? If you're gonna become an s corp, you really gotta get an accountant. Can't do that solo. So, like, certain things that come up where you might wanna bring, financial professional onto the team. Often, I see people hire bookkeepers during those transition moments.

Amelia HrubyAlso, if your business is doing really well and it's just something you don't have time to do anymore, like, bookkeeping as you've said as we've said many times here, like, there's a lot of flexibility, but you do have to stay on top of it at the very least annually. And if that's not something that there's time or space for in your business or life, like, having a bookkeeper to take care of that can be really reassuring. Because this is an area where, again, we want flexibility, but there's not a ton of room for, like, experimentation in terms of, like, there just are laws. There are rules and regulations. You can't just simply do whatever you want, however you want.

Amelia HrubyAnd so if you wanna be the most, like, creative artistic version of yourself in your business, maybe you bring on a bookkeeper to handle some of the more strict or regulated aspects of your finances.

Aneisha VelazquezAnd then some people just start a business, and they're like, I already know I want a bookkeeper. So it's a couple of my clients. Like, they started it, hired me to take care so they've had a bookkeeper from the beginning, so their books have never been messy or because they just they just knew, like, I'm neurodivergent. I want someone to just take care of this for me and be there already. So that's another option.

Aneisha VelazquezLike, if you just want to get one already, we're not gonna say no.

Amelia HrubyWell, Anisha, thank you so much for just all of this, like, elucidation and clarification and support. I'm wondering as sort of a final note for us, for anyone tuning in who is listening to this episode because I made the title, it's not too late to do your taxes, and they're feeling stressed. They're feeling like maybe things are a little messy. They're feeling a little discouraged. Do you have any pep talks for folks in that position who need some encouragement to clean up their books right now?

Aneisha VelazquezYeah. So it truly isn't too late. I know people think extensions are like a sign of failure, but they're not. A lot of people use tax extensions as a part of their tax strategy. Cause there's certain things, especially if your finances get more complicated that you just have to wait to get information about.

Aneisha VelazquezSo you got, you have to do a tax extension. So first of all, if you need to do that, that's fine. The government has that as a option for a reason. Second of all, getting your books cleaned up. If this is your first time doing it, then just think, Get the money in, how much was coming in, get that number, and then how much was coming out, and where did that money go to.

Aneisha VelazquezJust simple categories. It can be a spreadsheet. That's fine. But it's like you can do this. I like to remind people that really the IRS just wants to know how much did you get and where did it go.

Aneisha VelazquezSo, like, on a spreadsheet, your profit and loss statement, They're not here to hurt you. They're just here to know how much you made. They're just nosy about what's coming in because they wanna make sure you pay their taxes.

Amelia HrubyYeah. They just want their cut.

Aneisha VelazquezYeah. Like, that's it. They're they're not trying to put anyone in jail or anything. They just want their cut, and that's it. Yeah.

Aneisha VelazquezSo I'm like, you can do it. And if you need any help, you can always reach out and just ask, like, does this make sense? Does this look good? And if you have any questions.

Amelia HrubyYeah. Absolutely. So listeners, you can always reach out to Anisha and hire her to do your books and pay her money, get a consult call. Also, if you're doing your taxes and you're in the interweb, you can come in there, and we will cheerlead you in our community. I I am not a tax professional.

Amelia HrubyWe do not offer financial advice, but I am totally there, especially for the emotional sides of this. And also for the fact, like, you know, I really appreciate everything that we've talked about here around the IRS, but also just, like, reminding everyone at this point that, like, knowing your numbers is good for you too. Yes. We do our taxes. We give the government its cut, whatever.

Amelia HrubyAnd also, like, this could be a really beautiful spring moment of clarifying what's happening in your business or at least what happened over the past year. And so come hang out with us in the interweb where we do that all the time, and we're happy to cheerlead you and talk about what's coming up. Or if you really want that double check, that help with the dollars and cents of it, check out Anisha's work. And And, Anisha, where can they find you online? How do people get in touch with you and hire you?

Aneisha VelazquezSo you can visit my website, yellowskybusiness.services, and then I have my email list on there so you can join it. And that's where I send out if I'm doing events, I do a monthly master class where I just talk about a topic. This last one was about how to pay yourself without guessing. So, yeah, I can just join the list and hear the upcoming ones.

Amelia HrubyAnd I just wanna say, I really appreciate, one, that you, like, focus on supporting neurodivergent led businesses, but just, like, what permeates your website to me is just it's like this shame free space, and I think that's so important when we come to bookkeeping. It also feels pretty like it's like shame free and it's kinda like girl boss free. Like your website is not about, like, we're gonna make 7 figures in your business by cleaning up your books and getting everything tight and in order. Like, it didn't feel like that messaging at all.

Aneisha VelazquezIt was very intentional because as a newer business owner, I felt pressured to advertise that. Cause you know, they tell you in marketing, people just want to make more money. I'm like, I don't know. I think some of us just want to feel like we know what to do with it. Whether you want to make 6 figures, 8 figures, you know, we all we just wanna know if we know what to do with it, and then we can decide from there.

Amelia HrubyI really, really appreciate your approach and the way you invite people in and everything we've talked about in this conversation. Do you have any final thoughts you wanna share with listeners today before we sign off?

Aneisha VelazquezJust you've got this. Like, whether you're new in business, you've been doing this a while, and now you're really trying to dial in your bookkeeping. Like, you've got this. Take it one step at a time. All the efforts will add.

Aneisha VelazquezSo

Amelia HrubyWhat a perfect note to end on. Thank you so much, Anisha, for being here. Listeners, we are gonna have a second episode about money and taxes specifically coming up later this week with Hannah of Sunlight Tax. That one's very much about all your questions for the IRS. Not so much about you knowing your money, more about them getting their cut.

Amelia HrubySo that's coming your way soon. And until then, we will see you off the grid.

Speaker 0Hate social media. Pleads on my brain like a bacteria. If you're in my Wikipedia, it'll say, I kinda hate social media. Host a picture of myself. Sacrifices my mental health.

Speaker 0Use your product time to tell.

Aneisha VelazquezOkay.

Amelia HrubyThat was an abridged version of Social Media by Surfer Boy and Rectangle. To hear the entire song, find Surfer Boy on Spotify or head to the link in the show notes. Thanks so much to them for sharing the song with us, as well as to Melissa Caitlin Carter, who sings our theme song that you hear at the start of every show. I'm your host, Emilia Ruby, and if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you will download the free Leading Social Media Toolkit at offthegrid.funtoolkit. Until next time, I will see you Off the Grid.

Amelia HrubyHi again, Amelia here. Remember me? You just heard my voice and now I'm back. But this time, it's with a very special gift as thanks to you for staying tuned in and being one of our very loyal listeners and fans. Today, I wanna share a few creative resources with you.